My Year Of Yes
A few years ago, I lost someone dear to me to cancer.
Emotionally paralyzed by my grief, I tried to reconnect with anything that even slightly resembled the joy I once knew. After months and months of searching, I decided that perhaps the solution was simpler than I realized. What if I committed to saying 'yes' to life, I wondered? And just like that, my curiosity led me to my year of yes.
I decided to let myself fall freely into whatever life presented. Music was always a source of connection between my late friend and I so, I bought every concert ticket I could. My concert-going averaged out to about three concerts per month — sometimes all in the same week. That year, our favorite band, Mae, went on tour for the first time in years to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our favorite album, The Everglow. They did a small run of concerts — six nights total — and I went to four of them. The magic of New York City always jolted me out of any depression so I visited once a month just feel the magic in the air. That year I even said yes to being the single girl at a local bar’s version of “The Dating Game.”
That year my life changed. It turned upside down, or perhaps, right side up. I went from a really dark place to a brighter place all because I said a small but mighty three letter word, ‘yes,’ to anything that had the potential to make me feel good. If a friend wanted to hang out at 11pm, I went. When it snowed nearly a blizzard, I walked 3 miles to meet friends.
I was living; unafraid, brave, and bold.
As the New Year draws closer, I always think back to the New Year’s Eve yoga class I taught at the end of my ‘year of yes’. I told this story — about saying ‘yes’ to everything because you never know when it might all be taken away. I shared with my students how all my ‘yeses’ led me to my soulmate, adopting a new dog, and being okay with death because I knew I had lived a good, full life.
About two weeks after I taught that class, one of my long-time yoga students approached me. She and her husband had been two of my first yoga students three years earlier and I adored seeing them every Thursday at 8:30pm. She told me that because of my message, she took a leap of faith and said a big ole Y-E-S to a job opportunity in Philadelphia. She said she had been contemplating taking it and that my message was what she needed — she had been holding back, and finally let go and fell in, and said yes.
It's like that episode of Grace and Frankie (season 1, episode 12, to be exact) where they go out and have a single night of "yes" with no "no" allowed, until the night is over. Frankie says, "I always like a good "say yes" night... You know, "say yes" takes you places you've never been." She proceeds to tell Grace about the time she bought a Del Taco franchise all because a guy asked her if she wanted to, and she wasn't allowed to say "no", so she said yes!
While I'm not telling you to go out and buy a fast food franchise, I am telling you to be open to accepting new experiences and living in the now — invite a little YOLO into your day. So, where will the perspective shift of "yes" take you this year? Be open, be brave, and say Y-E-S with wide open arms.
